New research casts doubts on the claim that pornography undermines men’s sexual satisfaction by promoting a preference for porn-like sex. The findings, which appear in the journal Personal Relationships, provide some preliminary evidence that pornography could in some instances bolster sexual satisfaction by promoting sexual variety.

“A recently published meta-analysis of studies showed that there is a small negative association between porn use and sexual and relationship satisfaction among men (but not women). That is, men who consumed more porn tend to be less satisfied with their sex lives and relationships,” explained study author Dan J. Miller, a PhD candidate at James Cook University.

“But why? Why would porn use be associated with satisfaction in this way? With this study we really just wanted to investigate some of the possible drivers of this association between porn use and satisfaction.”

“Some researchers in this area explain this association by saying that viewing porn causes men to be conditioned to want to have/expect the kind of sex they see in porn. These men then feel dissatisfied when their real-world sexual experiences don’t meet their porn-induced expectations,” Miller told PsyPost.

“Other researchers emphasize masturbation frequency. That is, porn use causes results in/enables men to masturbate more frequently then they otherwise would, and this then undermines their sexual arousal toward their partners. That is what we were testing in this paper, these two competing explanations.”

In their new study, the researchers confirmed that men who reported watching pornography more frequently also tended to report lower levels of sexual satisfaction. The frequency of pornography use was also linked to a preference for porn-like sexual acts and more frequent masturbation.

There was no evidence that the desire for porn-like sex was related to reduced sexual satisfaction — but there was a relationship found between increased masturbation and reduced sexual satisfaction.

The findings were based on two surveys of heterosexual men, which included 661 participants in total.

“The research did not find much evidence for the desire for ‘porn-like’ sex hypothesis. While porn use was associated with a greater desire to engage in the kinds of sexual practices commonly depicted in porn, this wasn’t associated with sexual dissatisfaction,” Miller said.

“In fact, the research tentatively suggests that porn use might have a positive effect on people’s sex satisfaction by promoting an interest in a greater variety of sexual behaviors. On the other hand, the study did find some support for the idea that porn use results in more frequent masturbation, which then acts to undermine sexual satisfaction.”

The study — like all research — includes some limitations. The use of correlational surveys prevents the researchers from determining the direction of causation.

“It’s possible that porn use causes an increase in masturbation, which then causes sexual dissatisfaction. But it is also possible that sexual dissatisfaction causes solitary masturbation, which then results in people seeking out pornography,” Miller told PsyPost.

“So, this study tells us the masturbation hypothesis is plausible, and now the next stage is to go and test this model experimentally or longitudinally (where you follow a group of participants over an extended period) to give us clarity around direction of causation.”

“Another weakness of this study is that we didn’t measure the context of porn use. Were participant’s using pornography alone or were they doing so with their sexual partners. There is a growing body of research suggesting that using pornography with a sexual partner doesn’t negatively impact sexual satisfaction in the same way that solitary porn use does,” Miller explained.

Despite the findings of reduced sexual satisfaction among those who frequently watch pornography, most men don’t feel that is has caused significant problems in their lives.

“I conducted another study looking at men’s self-perceptions of the effects that their porn use has had on their lives. In this study the men sampled reported that porn use had had a greater positive than negative effect across all the domains we measured (sex life; attitudes toward sex; life in general; perceptions and attitudes toward the opposite gender; and sexual knowledge).”

“So yeah, it is worth investigating the possible negative effects of porn use on consumers, but we should also keep in mind that most consumers believe that their porn use has had a benign to positive influence on their lives.”